The purchase of goods over the Internet has become a way of modern life. Over the past few years thousands of websites have sprung up to peddle goods of every conceivable sort. With a good search engine, an individual can find practically any one of these websites. Findings or generating a good deal is a different matter.
In the “bricks and mortar world,” big-box retailers such as Sam's Club and Wal-Mart can purchase goods in huge quantities and offer great deals to their shoppers. Over the Internet, however, savings are generated primarily by reducing the personnel required to generate a particular sale. Examples of these latter sorts of businesses include eBay and Amazon.com. A need, therefore, exists for a method of doing business over the Internet that can provide goods to buyers within reasonable periods of time and a low cost by simultaneously aggregating willing buyers together and limiting the number of personnel required to tend to such buyers.